LGBTQI LISTENING TOUR: AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR BISHOPS IN THE USA AND CANADA

To Our Readers: Email us your name and city of residence at editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com if you would like to co-sign this letter. You need not reside in North America or be Orthodox to sign. If you are a bishop, priest, or deacon, include your ecclesiastical title and the jurisdiction to which you belong. Your name will be added below as quickly as possible after we receive your email.

Please share this letter widely among your family members and friends who might feel moved to join their voices to ours.

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Dear Metropolitans, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada:

Orthodoxy in Dialogue has observed Pride Month 2019 by conducting a virtual listening tour for your benefit. The following thirteen voices represent a diversity of perspectives expressing a common plea: to be heard, to be taken seriously, to be loved, to be welcomed openly and without fear in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ, and to become contributing participants in an ongoing theological, spiritual, and pastoral dialogue among Orthodox brothers and sisters on questions of sexual and gender diversity in human nature. These questions include—but are not limited to— same-sex orientation, transgender identity, and biologically intersex bodies, as well as the spiritual ramifications of these for our ecclesial life in Christ slowly transfigured by divine grace and human ascesis.

We ask that you read the following testimonies prayerfully and with a shepherd’s heart:

13.

And lastly…

and

We respectfully urge the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, or individual jurisdictions, or individual bishops to take two actions:

First, create a committee of clergy, theologians, psychologists, therapists, laypersons, and especially Orthodox individuals who identify as LGBTQI to study questions of sexual and gender diversity in all their complexity.

Second, authorize, endorse, and sponsor—as an official, permanent ministry—a global support organization for Orthodox Christians who identify anywhere along the LGBTQI spectrum.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue stands prepared to offer our services to begin laying the groundwork for these important ministries. We have the contacts to do so.

Finally, in publishing this Open Letter we cannot predict how many individuals will co-sign. If in the end the numbers are low, we attribute this to the climate of extreme fear—deliberately perpetuated by certain of our priests and laity—which forces our LGBTQI Orthodox brothers and sisters and their allies to remain hidden in the closet. We have lost count of the number of them who have reached out privately to let us know that Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s work has saved their lives, their hope in God’s love for them, and their faith in the Orthodox Church.

Relying on the archpastoral prayers and blessings of each of you,

Archpriest N., Orthodox Church in America (name removed 8/21/19 at his bishop’s insistence)